March 29, 2024

Earn Money

Business Life

Council Post: The Future Of Work (Part 1): An Agile Mentality

Managing Partner @VOGGS MEDIA / Performance Advertiser / 5x Facebook Blueprint certified / 3x seen in Forbes

Work is changing. The days of sitting dreadfully in your cubicle, eagerly waiting for the end of the misery while making yourself look busy are long gone. The workplace is dramatically moving, and you can learn how to adapt to the changing landscape.

Agile teams and people taking responsibility for their own tasks and not being simply told what to do are emerging. Remote work, especially in the rising online sector, is common practice. And with that comes a new operating system for each and every one of us.

Do you have the newest mental firmware update?

Some of us might already have this “mental firmware update,” but others are still clinging to a sinking ship of rigid hierarchies, centralized command and leading from the top down. This evolution doesn’t mean that we have to become unproductive, however. We are just becoming more dynamic, less stagnant and future-proof.

As the founder and CEO of an online marketing agency based in Germany, this agile mentality is an intricate part of my daily business. And this is what I want to help you achieve: how to get ready for this new work environment that is closing in from all angles in numerous industries.

What are the essential traits in this new work environment?

The key factors in your business mindset are:

• Seeing more in projects and business ventures than just the expected ROI.

• Closely observing the development of the market by looking out for technological innovations and changes that can give you hints for great future projects.

• Planning comes in clutch. Gathering and structuring information can help you spot unforeseen deviations and have a great vision.

• Decentralized command, more organic structures, horizontal communication and cross-functional collaboration make all the difference.

• Good leadership is pivotal. The communication of your vision, identification with that vision on the management level and beyond, as well as employees that are regularly upgrading their education, are crucial for successful future business.

Why exactly those points?

To put it bluntly, that’s what the research (paywall) and relevant literature say. But it’s also what my day-to-day business experiences back up. There is less of the authoritarian leadership style, but at the same time, there’s also a focused concentration on what really matters. Be aware of the developing market but also focus more on the human part.

How can we unite these subjects?

Whenever I see those kinds of bullet-point lists with key factors, I try to see a pattern in them. Because how are we supposed to put a million things at once into practice? It never works.

To make it easy for you, I can give you the general undertone or “umbrella term” for all of these principles: agility. I know, agile leadership is one of the “it things” that fill business magazines nowadays, but don’t view it as a trend or fad. Rather, see it as a further development of business manners in the direction of individuality and creativity.

A lot of people want to work more independently. This is what all of the bullet points seem to point out very clearly: more freedom, more creativity; fewer restraints, less pressure. This sounds kind of like “anti-work” at first glance, right? It’s not. In fact, it is more pro-work than the top-down approach of the past was. This mindset helps find much more effective solutions because people are given the tools to think and not simply “what” to think. Grasping that underlying foundation will help you tremendously in implementing and following through with the various traits outlined. So let’s get to it.

First thing’s first: Don’t get overwhelmed.

It’s easy to overburden your mind if you think of implementing all of these suggested actionable items right now. Don’t do that. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Take your time with it.

Start with only one thing, but start with it right now. Start writing down how this might apply best to your business.

What is the single best suggestion from this text that your company will benefit from the most? Write it down classically with a pen on paper. What does your business need the most right now from all of these points? Set aside a small amount of time, even five or 10 minutes a day if you can’t spare more, to capture those innovative ideas and those big visions in your head.


Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?


Source Article